Jared Goff talks about Rams trade
Goff said that he doesn’t feel as emotionally charged playing the Rams as he once did earlier in his career with the Lions.
The Detroit Lions are going international.
The Lions will play a regular-season game outside of the United States, as part of the NFL’s 2026 International Games, according to a source with knowledge of the Lions’ future schedule. The country and the date are unknown.
The Lions have not played overseas since making back-to-back trips to London in 2014-15, but they had been expecting to have one of their home games shipped overseas next fall.
NFL rules require teams to play internationally at least once every eight years. The Lions were expected to play the Jacksonville Jaguars in London in 2020, when international games were cancelled due to COVID-19.
Next year will mark the first time the Lions have given up a home date to play overseas.
Under the NFL’s 17-game scheduling format, NFC teams have nine home games in 2026. The Lions will play the remaining eight of those games, plus one preseason game, at Ford Field.
Their home schedule for next year includes games against the Green Bay Packers, Chicago Bears, Minnesota Vikings, New England Patriots, New York Jets, New Orleans Saints, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and teams from the AFC South and NFC East that finish in the same place as the Lions in the standings.
The Lions have broadened their international reach in recent years, acquiring marketing rights in Germany, Brazil, Canada, Austria and Switzerland as part of the NFL’s Global Markets Program.
Lions receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown hosts a football camp every spring in Germany, where his mother was born, and the Lions unveiled a German mascot this year they named “Leo Löwe.”
“Germany, with the number of games that are being played there, and in particular with St. Brown’s popularity, was kind of a natural thing to draft off of his popularity and vice versa, cause I know he wants to do some things over there,” Lions president Rod Wood explained of the team’s decision to bid on marketing rights in Germany in 2024.
This year, the NFL played seven international games in five countries: Germany, Brazil, Ireland, Spain and England. Next year, the league will add games in Austrailia and possibly France.
Dave Birkett covers the Lions for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Bluesky, X and Instagram at @davebirkett.